About

$98,007

2,394

Help us print Valor: Wands - the second volume of our fairy tale comic anthology trilogy about courageous heroines.

Fairy Tales do not inform children that there is such things as monsters. Children already know that there are monsters. What Fairy Tales really teach is that monsters can be transformed or destroyed.

- Paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton

What is Valor? Valor is a comic anthology project composed of adapted, re-imagined, or invented fairy tales showcasing the talent of numerous creators. The anthology is aimed at all-age readers, and is LGBTQA+ friendly.

The purpose of the stories is to pay homage to the strength, resourcefulness, and cunning of female heroines in fairy tales. Although fairy tales are often presented as a "feminine" form of literature due to the abundance of princesses, a lot of classic princess archetypes are passive, asleep, imprisoned, or offered as a prize. Valor, and all the creators participating in it, want to give female heroines the roles they deserve, to inspire young and old readers alike.

Valor was planned as a trilogy. The first volume was funded successfully through Kickstarter in 2014. Valor: Wandsis the second book of the trilogy. The third, Valor: Cups, is planned for 2019.

Like the first volume of Valor, the anthology is in full color. It will have approximately 200 pages of content with 19 comics, four prose stories, and 10 illustrations.

Valor is edited and published by Fairylogue Press, the creative team of Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton, co-creators of the fantasy webcomic Namesake. Valor:Wands contains the following stories:

Backers can grab the print or digital versions of Valor: Wandsalong with a selection of goodies. Here is a list of the available rewards.

The design for the physical rewards are all ready to be produced! We have two sticker designs, an silver-finish enamel pin, as well as bookmarks and postcard prints.

Backers of the $100 reward will be featured in the book as Patrons of Valor. Each patron is listed in the book with a short dedication and a portrait. The portraits can be of the backers themselves, or of loved ones or of an original character.

Here is how the Kickstarter funds will be broken down:

Paying artists: We want as much money as possible from the Kickstarter to land back in the pocket of the artists, and the amount they get depends on how much is raised in the Kickstarter. We are starting out by paying our artists $60 per page, but we want to be able to give them $100 per page, possibly more!

Printing books: Our books are being printed by Marquis in Montreal, Canada, an amazing printer that also handled Namesake book 3. Our initial print run is for 1,000 copies of Valor in paperback, sized at 6.625x10.25 - standard comic book size, with foil on the cover to match vol. 1.

Shipping and packaging: USPS has raised its shipping costs as of the beginning of January, but it has still proven to be the most reliable source of shipping for us. Other shipping services have either been far more expensive or have a very high rate of losing packages.

Fees and taxes: Kickstarter and Stripe will get its cut. It's unknown if we will be using BackerKit again for project management.

Rewards: This is the money for paying for all the pretty, pretty swag.

Wiggle room: This is for unexpected expenses, as well as paying for travel to conventions where we get to show off Valor to more people!

If we reach our goal to print Valor: Wands, we have exciting stretch goals to add to the project! The mystery of each tile shall be revealed as we reach a new goal.

$60 000 - ??????

$80,000 - ??????

$100,000 - ?????

We have no plans at this time to offer stretch goals beyond these, as any extra funds made beyond this goal will be going to our artists for their hard work!

Additional tip of the hat to all the greats, from Grimm to Andersen, without forgetting Perrault, D'Aulnoy, Jacobs, Lang, Afanasyev, Leprince de Beaumont, Asbjornsen, Carroll, and all the Scheherazades of the worlds.

Risks and challenges

We have already worked on ways to avoid issues. Most of the book materials are already in hand and being proofed, reducing production time. Furthermore, our team are Kickstarter veterans, with four successful ones under our belt. This experience, combined with the support we get from artists and Hiveworks, is sure to help us run this project in a timely manner.